PODCAST: LAST SEEN

PODCAST: LAST SEEN

The heist of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is something like the holy grail of art crime. This podcast will look at why not a single artwork has been recovered....

MY VERDICT: I enjoyed this podcast but I did think it was a little long. It’s a breath of fresh air to listen to a series that’s got a true crime subject that doesn’t involve murder. 

PODCAST: GLADIATOR

PODCAST: GLADIATOR 

Football star Aaron Hernandez went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, best known for its investigation of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Catholic Church, takes a hard look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez’s life and terrible crimes. Did a brain badly damaged by football contribute to Hernandez’s violent behavior? Did he keep secrets about his sexuality that collided with a hyper-masculine football culture? Did elite coaches and teams look the other way as Hernandez was spiraling out of control? Spotlight uncovered new documents, audio, and interviews to go deep into the story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez, and what it means for those of us who cheer on a violent game. From Wondery, the podcast team that brought you Dr. Death.

MY VERDICT: Despite knowing nothing of American Football and not having much interest in sport in general, I found this podcast thoroughly fascinating. The story follows Aaron Hernandez through his career and asks questions about how the people around him could have prevented his violent decline or whether the sport itself was to blame. I don’t know if all these questions were answered but I certainly learnt a lot along the way.

PODCAST: HAPPY FACE

PODCAST: HAPPY FACE

For Melissa Moore, 1995 was a nightmare. That’s the year the teenager learned her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was a serial killer. It’s also the year Melissa Moore’s doubt spiral began: When you look like your father, and you share his intelligence and charisma, how do you know you’re not a psychopath, too? Happy Face is the story of Keith Hunter Jesperson, his brutal crimes, and the cat and mouse game he played with detectives and the media. But it’s also the story of the horrific legacy he gifted his children. Join Melissa Moore as she investigates her father’s crimes, reckons with the past, and wades through her darkest fears as she hunts for a better future.

MY VERDICT: When I first heard the trailer for this podcast, I honestly thought it was one of those fictional story-telling podcasts – a dramatization, because of the high production value and the articulate way Melissa expressed herself, I couldn’t believe it was real, but it was. This story is different from any other true crime story I’d listened to because it has such a unique perspective, the perfective of the daughter of a serial killer. 

I would highly recommend this podcast but, be warned, it’s heartbreaking.

FIVE HELPFUL BLOG POSTS TO READ

FIVE HELPFUL BLOG POSTS TO READ

1. THE *ONLY* TOOLS TO PURCHASE FOR AT-HOME PEDICURES

http://coveteur.com/2017/07/22/shop-best-at-home-pedicure-tools/

2. THE 50 BEST INTERIORS WEBSITES

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-50-best-interiors-websites-8798668.html

3. 33 SCARY AS SHIT MOVIES YOU CAN WATCH ON NETFLIX

https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/babashook?utm_term=.bxbP34XqQz#.jx1lbwJpVX

4. THE BEAUTY TOOL THAT WILL INSTANTLY UPGRADE YOUR CAT-EYE GAME

https://metro.co.uk/2017/07/28/the-beauty-tool-that-will-instantly-upgrade-your-cat-eye-game-6807306/#mv-a

5. A HANDFUL OF GREAT PODCASTS TO LISTEN TO THIS WEEK

http://meetmeatmikes.com/a-handful-of-great-podcasts-to-listen-to-this-week/

PODCAST: DR. DEATH

PODCAST: DR. DEATH

We’re at our most vulnerable when we go to our doctors. We trust the person at the other end of that scalpel. We trust the hospital. We trust the system. Dr. Christopher Duntsch was a neurosurgeon who radiated confidence. He claimed he was the best in Dallas. If you had back pain, and had tried everything else, Dr. Duntsch could give you the spine surgery that would take your pain away. But soon his patients started to experience complications. And all they had to protect them was a system ill equipped to stop the madness. From Wondery, the network behind the hit podcast Dirty John, DR. DEATH is about a medical system that failed to protect these patients at every possible turn. Reported and hosted by Laura Beil.

MY VERDICT: This podcast is equal parts gripping and shocking, I don’t want to give too much away as I listened to this without knowing anything about it, which I think is the best way to listen to anything. What I will say is, don’t listen to this if you’re about to have surgery or know someone who is. And never let someone operate on you if they are the kind of person who loses their keys daily.

The podcast is short, concise, and the story is well told. I binged it in a few days, in part, because I couldn’t quite believe what I was listening to. This is a definite recommend.

PODCAST: UNCOVER: ESCAPING NXIVM

PODCAST: UNCOVER: ESCAPING NXIVM

XIVM calls itself a humanitarian community. Experts and critics call it a cult. Uncover: Escaping NXIVM is a new CBC investigative podcast series about the group, its leader, Keith Raniere, and one woman's journey to get out. Read about what drew Sarah Edmondson to Raniere and his followers and how she ended up turning on him.

MY VERDICT: I loved this podcast, I loved how it laid out the facts, opinions, and both sides of the arguments and asked some really difficult questions. Questions like; what makes a cult a cult? How can someone be in a cult and not know? How do you escape a cult?

I would recommend listening to this podcast, you get a unique view on a fascinating story and it’s ongoing so there’s still lots to learn. 

PODCAST: THE TEACHER’S PET

PODCAST: THE TEACHER’S PET

Chris and Lyn appear to have the perfect marriage. But when Lyn goes missing, dark secrets are buried. This is no fairytale, but a sordid story of strangely close twin brothers, teenage student lovers, and probable murder. 

MY VERDICT: This story is amazing for so many reasons, but mostly for the fact that someone could go missing for so long without anyone seemingly doing anything at all. It amazed me that the police took everything Chris Dawson said at face value and didn’t check even the easiest of evidence, like phone records to prove his story. One failure and story of incompetence or indifference after another will find you in equal parts frustrated and shocked by this story.

If I have any criticism it’s maybe that it’s an episode or two too long, and repeats information a little too often but the story is fascinating and ongoing, so I’m hoping for more updates in the future.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-teachers-pet

(There is a lot of information on the official website…)

FIVE HELPFUL BLOG POSTS TO READ

FIVE HELPFUL BLOG POSTS TO READ

1. 20 TRUE CRIME PODCASTS MORE ADDICTIVE THAN SERIAL

http://stylecaster.com/best-podcasts-like-serial/

2. 11 THINGS EVERY SMALL BATHROOM NEEDS

https://www.domino.com/content/storage-for-small-bathrooms/

3. EVERY BEAUTY INFOGRAPHIC YOU'LL EVER NEED TO KNOW FROM PINTEREST

http://www.refinery29.com/beauty-tips-cheat-sheet-pinterest?crlt.pid=camp.oJLGmitNv2g2&crlt.pid=camp.l6C7eGH3BlrJ

4. YOUR TO-DO LIST TO MAKE 2018 YOUR HEALTHIEST YEAR EVER

https://camillestyles.com/wellness/your-to-do-list-to-make-2018-your-healthiest-year-ever/

5. 50 CONTEMPORARY BOOKS EVERY WOMAN’S GOTTA READ

https://modernmrsdarcy.com/contemporary-books-must-read-women/?utm_source=bloglovin.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ModernMrsDarcy+%28modern+Mrs.+Darcy%29

PODCAST: THE GATEWAY

PODCAST: THE GATEWAY

Teal Swan is an internet spiritual guru who produces hypnotic self-help YouTube videos aimed at people who are struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. Many of her videos share unorthodox messages about mental health with her hundreds of thousands of fans who follow her on Facebook and Instagram, and in person.

This podcast investigates Teal and asks the question as to whether her methods are dangerous and could cause serious harm, or helpful services for those who need them.

MY VERDICT: This isn’t the kind of thing I would normally listen to, and I happened upon it purely by chance – I mostly listen to true crime podcasts and this was a little different, although there is an investigative element to it.

I’m not going to give anything away so I’ll talk very little of the details uncovered, other to say that you find out fascinating things and it twists and turns in directions you just wouldn’t expect.

I find Teal Swan to be equal parts annoying and remarkable, her tone of voice is sometimes obnoxious and she has an answer for everything (but she should because she’s selling herself as a guru), but you have to admire her for the following she has created, if only from a business and marketing point of view.

There are, despite the investigation, no clear answers and no satisfying ending to this podcast but it poses some very interesting questions, especially as to what some of the most vulnerable people on this planet need. I recommend this podcast, it’s enthralling and opens up a debate on gurus, memories, spiritualism, YouTube and suicide.

Find information here: https://gizmodo.com/weve-launched-an-investigative-podcast-about-a-controve-1826416613

PODCAST: DEATH IN ICE VALLEY

PODCAST: DEATH IN ICE VALLEY

An unidentified body. Who was she? Why hasn’t she been missed? A BBC World Service and NRK original podcast, investigating a mystery unsolved for almost half a century.

MY VERDICT: The above information is all the background you’re given before you start to listen to this well made documentary podcast. And it’s intriguing, which sets the tone for the mystery and the series. A woman is found dead and burnt in the remote valley near Bergen in Norway. No one knows who she is, no one knows where she came from, no one has reported her missing and all the labels are missing from her clothes.

I’d heard of this mystery a long time ago but didn’t research it at all as I was under the impression that there wasn’t much to know – nothing had been discovered in all the years since her death in 1970.  That was until this podcast from the BBC and NRK started digging.

Not only are the facts fascinating, and the investigating is amazingly well done, but I think one of the best aspects of this podcast is the style. The moody rain-scapes are atmospheric and perfect for setting the tone. The differences between the presenters are one of things that I find most interesting. The English man from the BBC, Neil McCarthy, is an outsider and a pragmatist with typical English pessimism while Marit Higraff, the presenter from NRK is forever optimistic and tells such a compelling background to McCathy and us, the listeners.  

Some information is held back, it doesn’t speculate madly (like the internet) and facts or information is given to us clue by clue, but it’s a testament to a well-made podcast and great storytelling rather than to give a biased opinion. 

There’s a great website to accompany this https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p060ms2h

I would recommend to listen to the podcast first and then look at all the notes. And then maybe look at all other crazy internet theories afterwards.

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For 21 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He's won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. What does the evidence reveal? And how can the justice system ignore the prosecutor's record and keep Flowers on death row?

MY VERDICT: I loved listening to this podcast but it made me angry. It made me angry because it just didn’t seem fair. This seemed to be your usual case of someone convicted on not enough evidence but it goes much deeper than this. It doesn’t seem like it should be allowed that when someone wins an appeal against their conviction they should have to stay in prison if the DA says he’ll just try again. Why does the DA not face some kind of punishment when he was found to be in the wrong – why do only the defendants suffer? 

This podcast team does some deep, deep investigating. Finding documents long thought lost and collating information on cases going back decades to crate stats that don’t get recorded or checked, but should. 

I would recommend this podcast but prepare to feel dismayed in large doses.

Their website is also very well put together: https://www.apmreports.org/in-the-dark/season-two

And if you haven’t listened to the first season, I would highly recommend that too, it’s not the same story so you don’t need to listen in a particular order. 

PODCAST: BLACK HANDS

PODCAST: BLACK HANDS

This is the story of a mass-murder that divided a nation - a story that began in a rickety old home on a cold June morning in 1994, where five members of a seemingly ordinary New Zealand family were gunned down. There were two suspects. One lay dead from a single bullet to the head. The other was the only survivor: David Bain. Since then the country has asked: who killed the Bain family? David or his father Robin? In this podcast, Martin van Beynen explores the case from start to finish, picking through evidence, the mysteries and motives, and interviewing never-before-spoken-to witnesses. He seeks to finally answer the question: Who was the killer?

MY VERDICT:

I did find this fascinating, it’s such a bizarre story it’s hard not to find interesting however this podcast did have many issues. Firstly, and I say firstly because it’s one of the first things you hear, I found the use of the emergency call in the intro to be manipulative and exploitative. Whether you believe that David Bain, the survivor of the family massacre, killed everyone else or not, this should, in my eyes, not have been used. Without concrete evidence, despite differing opinions, you can’t say he did it, however the journalist is not shy in claiming that he is guilty.  

I come to true crime podcasts to be told information, and I do like to come to my own conclusions, and yes, I agree with the journalist’s judgment but really a true crime podcast shouldn’t have one. These podcasts especially with no conviction taking place at the end should be unbiased, this is not. I don’t know if they’d be able to get away with this in America, but maybe he does it because he says ‘I think’ he did it?

However, I wouldn’t let this put you off listening to this podcast, it’s compelling, I listened to the whole series, which is only short, very quickly. There’s an interesting story being told and despite the biased nature of the narrator, you do get information from other sides. The main drawback and confusing thing is that you only seem to get audio from David’s second trial and not even a transcript of the first. I won’t spoil anything more for you… 

PODCAST: CONVICTED SEASON 1

PODCAST: CONVICTED SEASON 1 

Convicted Season 1 told the story of Richard Nicolas and his conviction for the murder of his two year old daughter, Aja. It explored the question "What if he didn't do it?".

MY VERDICT: I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast, despite the horrific nature of the crime itself. The podcast is well narrated, well structured and you felt that you were given all the necessary information on the case. It’s not a case to be solved but rather the podcast asks the question – was this person, Richard Nicolas, given a fair trial? I believe he wasn’t. There’s instances of information given as scientific fact that is misinterpreted and this itself seemed to be what the whole prosecution depended the guilty verdict upon.

This podcast does share a lot of similarities with the case in Serial. In fact Richard Nicolas and Adnan Syed shared a defence attorney and were housed in the same prison. However there are also lots of differences. The shows creator Brooke Gittings is not a journalist, she’s a social worker, her style is more informal, and despite this she does a brilliant job. She keeps an open mind and gives you information, like what it’s like to visit someone in prison, that you wouldn’t necessarily get from other true crime podcasts. There’s also a lot of information missed from the likes of serial, like what comes next, the exhausting amount of legal proceedings that one has to go thorough to appeal a conviction and attempt to get a new trial. 

This podcast had me hooked from the start and was deeply engaging. I would recommend to anyone who was a Serial fan.

PODCAST: UNTOLD: THE DANIEL MORGAN MURDER

PODCAST: UNTOLD: THE DANIEL MORGAN MURDER

SEASON ONE & TWO

The Untold Story

The phone hacking scandal that closed News of the World was big, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.  At the bottom of that iceberg of 'dark arts' - hacking, burglary, bugging, and bribing bent cops - is the body of Daniel Morgan. 

It’s been described by an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police as “one of the most disgraceful episodes in the entire history of the Metropolitan Police Service.” 

Over the three decades since Daniel was killed, five failed police investigations and an ongoing panel inquiry, his has become the most investigated murder in British history.

The story moves from back streets of London, through the highest echelons of Scotland Yard, to the offices of Rupert Murdoch's best selling newspapers, to the doors of Number Ten Downing Street. 

If you haven't heard this story, ask yourself, why? 

MY VERDICT: I listened to both seasons straight after one another and I binged the whole thing pretty quickly. That was a problem, as the second season does go back over a lot of the information from the first. However this was my problem and not something that the makers of ‘Untold’ can be blamed for.

The podcast is very well made and the story is fascinating. There is so much more to this story than a straight forward whodunit, probably because all involved are pretty sure they know who was responsible for the murder of Daniel Morgan, instead we delve into a world of underhand tactics by not only private investigators but also the police and the media. 

I would thoroughly recommend this podcast and found it refreshing to hear a story based in England, it meant a little more to me to know the places and people involved than the predominately American podcasts I had listened to in the past, and it’s nice to hear an English voice for a change. Even if you’re not from England, I think the storytellers give a good enough description of things that even those unfamiliar with newspapers like The News of the World will still be able to follow. However, be warned, there is a lot of information to digest, a lot characters to remember and after five full investigations a whole lot to process, hopefully with more to come this will all be worth it.

http://www.untoldmurder.com

PODCAST: ATLANTA MONSTER

PODCAST: ATLANTA MONSTER

From the producers of Up and Vanished, Tenderfoot TV and HowStuffWorks present, ‘Atlanta Monster.’ This true crime podcast tells the story of one of the city’s darkest secrets, The Atlanta Child Murders. Nearly 40 years after these horrific crimes, many questions still remain. Host Payne Lindsey aims to find truth and provide closure, reexamining the disappearance and murder of over 25 African American children and young adults.

MY VERDICT: I started by listening to Payne Lindsey’s first podcast, ‘Up and Vanished’ but haven’t quite got to the end of that yet – the reason? Because Payne Lindsey was recording it as he went. As exciting as the investigation can be, and the joy of revelation as it is – it doesn’t make for the best story-telling. All the best podcasts are investigated and then recorded and split into episodes with information being revealed as it goes – but the storyteller always knows where it’s going – therefore the narrative is controlled and always interesting. As compelling as the story was (‘Up and Vanished’ is about a missing school teacher and remained a cold case for many years – until this podcast caused people to open up and secrets to come out) it could be a little exhausting to listen to. Nothing was emitted to make the story more captivating, nothing was held back as a reveal later on, it was all laid out in every episode.

I think Payne Lindsey learnt from the mistakes of his first podcast (and it was commendable because it got amazing results) and this podcast ‘Atlanta Monster’ is a much more polished and well narrated, well curated story in comparison.

There was a lot of information to absorb, it’s a sad tale of so many young men going missing and many bodies being found. At its core is what seems like a really lucky find of the main suspect Wayne Williams, Many things point to his guilt and his innocence, and whether Williams is guilty is the main point of investigation for this podcast.

I think what we’re left with is the idea that yes, some evidence does point to the fact that he did do something. Possibly he killed some of the children, or young men – ultimately he was only convicted of killing two men and not all the children but the press or society, or both seemed to believe he might as well have been convicted of all the crimes. I’m on the side of the argument that says, yes he did commit some crimes but not all the murders and disappearances of the children were the work of one man. So there are some people who walked free, possibly they’ve passed by now, who benefitted from Wayne’s conviction.

I won’t give any more away, give this a listen.